- Matchday - 13/08/2016 21:30h

Mir grabs late goal to give VCF the Trofeo Naranja

August, 13 2016 -

A late goal from Rafa Mir gave Valencia CF a 2-1 victory over Fiorentina in the Trofeo Naranja season curtain raiser at Mestalla on Saturday.

Mir finished clinically into the corner after a superb threaded pass from Dani Parejo after 86 minutes to give Pako Ayestarán’s side the win in front of a festive crowd.

The game kicked-off following the presentation of the VCF squad for the new campaign, and the visitors quickly took the lead through Federico Bernadeschi.

Valencia bounced back with Rodrigo Moreno taking full advantage of some poor defending to equalise, and then with the home side in the ascendency it was Mir that got the decider.

Fresh from being entertained by four local musical bands and seeing children from the club’s academy take part in a choreography on the pitch, fans saw the game kick-off at a high tempo.

Ayestarán brought Rúben Vezo back into the backline alongside Aymen Abdennour as he continued to shuffle his pack ahead of the start of the La Liga campaign against Las Palmas in eight days time.

New signing Álvaro Medrán has impressed breaking from midfield creating and scoring goals, and he once again began in midfield alongside Dani Parejo and Enzo Pérez.

Valencia knocked the ball around but were caught out almost immediately at the back with a curling strike from Bernardeschi that nestled into the top corner.

Ayestarán’s players were knocked out of their side for a few minutes but soon regathered themselves and began to push forward with Rodrigo firing over with a 20 yard strike from the right.

Alcácer volleyed over with a difficult shot to execute after the ball fell to him from a corner and then Valencia grabbed the equaliser thanks to some sloppy defending.

Tatarusanu rolled the ball out to Astori whose back-pass went straight to Rodrigo who had the simple task to knock the ball into an open net.

Parejo was directing the game through the midfield and he sent a superb, defence splitting pass for Rodrigo, who ran from the half-way line but pushed wide, fired over.

Alcácer was inches away from giving the blanquinegros the lead with a strike from the edge of the area after being found well by José Luis Gayà after 34 minutes and before half-time Martín Montoya put the ball in the back of the net but had moved into an off-side position.

Ayestarán made several changes at half-time but the team maintained the high-tempo as they sought to win the first game they have played at Mestalla during the preseason.

Fiorentina were defending deep with Valencia stretching them on the wings while Mir, on for Alcácer, was a headache for the visitors’ backline.

Another substitute Zakaria Bakkali also looked lively after being brought on and another goal appeared on the cards which was delivered by Mir. He slotted past the keeper after being found by an exquisite pass from Parejo who had wriggled clear of a couple of players.

In injury time Gonzalez Rodriguez was given a second yellow card and dismissed for a foul on Bakkali.

Copyright 2013-2017 Valencia Club De Fútbol. Quoting text from this article is permitted provided that en.valenciacf.com is credited as source, with a clickable link.
Photographs by Lázaro de la Peña, re-use is not permitted.